Trip log, day one. Vancouver, Canada.
9-Night Alaskan Cruise on Disney Wonder
July 15, 2024 – Guests Onboard: 3:45 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 1

Our captain for this cruise is Robert Olmer. As for our onboard entertainment, Trent Hitchcock is our Cruise Director. During this 9-night Alaskan cruise we will be visiting the ports of Ketchikan, Glacier Viewing (Stikine Icecap), Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Sitka, and Victoria.

I’m getting a little ahead of things. The day started on land at waking up in our hotel room. We were relived to see clear blue skies when we pulled back the curtains!!!

We had the option to head over to the terminal and wait, or we could walk around Vancouver some more. Easy decision because hotel check-out time was Noon. We walked around and found Amazon on a sign. Thankfully, we will be sailing during Prime Day and the shopping temptation will be easy to avoid. It would have been cool if this was some sort of outlet store, but it appeared it was just offices.

Our walk continued around the Vancouver Centre Mall which I can tell you from experience has a shoe store and that H&M sells Orlando t-shirts.

One last required stop at Tim Hortons before returning to the hotel to check out. There seems to be a lot of love and adoration for this establishment. For those that have been to Everglazed at Disney Springs or Voodoo Doughnuts at CityWalk, which do you like better? Be honest.

I’ll eventually circle back and write up a proper review article on our stay at the Rosedale on Robson, but for now, it suited our needs perfectly and would absolutely consider it for the next time we visit Vancouver and want to stay in this area of downtown. We will always choose a suite that has more room over a regular hotel room with just two beds any day.

After seeing the backed up streets around the port on Sunday, we decided to walk the 1-mile to the port. I figured, if traffic was the same, who knows how long we will sit in a car when we know it is just about a 20-minute walk. We reached the entrance to the cruise terminal at Canada Place around high Noon, well after our 10:45 AM port arrival time.

Initially, it appeared we beat the morning rush. However, the process soon ground to a halt. Signage was poor, which required port staff to direct us where to go. The process was significantly different than our experiences in 2017 and 2019. Instead of a luggage drop-off on the bottom floor of the terminal pictured above, luggage was dropped off in the same big room as check-in. Location wasn’t the problem; it was the lack of signage to follow and different members of the port staff providing different directions.

Ultimately, the idea of arriving well after our port arrival time didn’t work out as we envisioned. There was an exterior line just to get into the separated PAT lines without a bypass line for guests with earlier arrival times. For example, they were welcoming in guests with 12:00, 12:15, and 12:30. There are really only 2 important perks of being at the Pearl Castaway Club level; early booking and not having to stay up until midnight to get a PAT. However, there is really no embarkation day benefit at terminals that are not named Port Canaveral. Yes, first world problems here, but what is the point of a loyalty program with no tactile benefits?

Once inside, we were directed to the earliest line, which was 12p and then when they moved that line into the next queue system, they directed us into the concierge line which was awesome because there was a full queue of passengers and no discernible breakout for each Castaway Club level like at other embarkation ports. We were then quickly checked-in, Isabelle’s DisneyBand+ was linked, and it was time to make our way to security, which was another first for us – going through security after checking in…..

Security was another issue. The amount of opened snacks they were confiscating from guests was astonishing. The bin looked like the trash in the TSA line. In prior years, they have been sticklers to the alcohol allowance to the point, they would check every bottle of wine to ensure it was indeed wine. We learned not to bring in wine that was aged in bourbon barrels, as having the word ‘bourbon’ on the label was an issue here previously. This year, they said something to my wife about the 4 bottles, and simply pointed to me as the 4 divided by 2 = 2 per guest and they were cool; didn’t even send us to a table for further inspection. However, they wanted to see inside Isabelle’s carry-on bag. Our teenage CRIMINAL had a bag of dark chocolate covered pecans from Buc-ees but they did’t blink an eye at the half eaten brownie we still had leftover from last night’s dinner, or Isabelle’s zip lock bag of Goldfish crackers. In all of our cruises, we have never been told that open snacks were not allowed to be carried on.

Speaking of supposed prohibited items…..The following is partially hearsay because I am not fully aware of the full story, but I spoke with a passenger on debarkation morning who tried to bring golf clubs onboard to play golf in Alaska. At first they were going to tag them and hold them on the ship, but someone else stepped in and said absolutely not, those cannot go onboard and were held in Vancouver for pickup as a confiscated item. Golf clubs are actually an exception stated on Disney Cruise Line’s prohibited items page.

Sailing from other ports really shows how well operations are run at Port Canaveral, but this isn’t the first year Disney Cruise Line is sailing from Vancouver. Just comparing our prior 2 embarkation days, this was a significant step back in operational efficiency.

We then proceeded to walk onboard without stopping. It reminded me of when you finally get past an accident on I-4, and after crawling for over an hour you finally get to drive the posted speed limit again.

Initially, the plan was to meet up with the group in Cabanas, but it was jammed to the point that cast members staged at the handwashing stations were recommending guests visit the pool area quick service options or the sit-down restaurant. They stated that Cabanas was at capacity. We walked in simply because we were meeting up with those in our group already seated from an impromptu DCL Blog Cruise lunch, but we quickly bailed, and headed to the pool deck. Isabelle did manage to grab a bowl of peel and eat shrimp. I will say, that of late, even when sailing on other cruise lines, we have enjoyed later boarding (around Noon) and skipping the buffet lunches opting for other options. It is much more manageable, less crowded and chaotic.

Essentially, it was a repeat of embarkation day last month in Fort Lauderdale on the Disney Magic. We stopped for shawarma, this time at Pete’s Boiler Bites and Pinocchio’s Pizzeria for a slice of pizza for today’s special, BBQ chicken.

We hung out at table on the pool deck until 1:30p then proceeded to our stateroom to drop off our carry-on items.

To kick off our DCL Blog cruise, we were going to have a group meetup in French Quarter Lounge to pass out gifts, schedules, a Disney Wonder photo scavenger hunt, and Alaska Cruise bingo cards. By the way, as soon as we boarded (not 5-minutes onboard!), I noticed 1 of the photo scavenger hunt items was no longer present. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? It was the number 32 on the streetcar in Disney Wonder’s newest venue, French Quarter Lounge and it was GONE. GRRRRRRRR.

Afterwards, we walked down the hallway to Guest Services to apply our two gift cards to our onboard account and ask for a printed schedule, which I noticed was posted on the wall to view, but not available in the rack for self-service. Thankfully, guest service cast members were more than happy to provide a printed copy each morning upon request.

After a somewhat successful time-lapse at Lookout Cay, I was going to go all in and get my GoPro time-lapse rig setup in our friend’s verandah stateroom. The Anker battery which is just under the TSA limit to fly, is capable of running the camera for over 24-hours. I am mounting the camera with a NEEWER Super Clamp which has rubber pads to prevent marking up the ship surfaces. Then to be extra careful, I have paracord tethers attached to the mount and camera that are connected clipped around the railing in the even the clamp fails. My plan for this cruise is to let it record until the battery runs out. Recharge, and start over. I am not holding my breath, but there is potential for something epic. Just be sure to check back for day 2 of the trip log as I will have a time-lapse from Vancouver through the inside passage, then again on glacier day.

This is the point in every embarkation day when we spend time in our stateroom before the muster drill unpacking, but you cannot unpack suitcases if they have not been delivered. As the time clicked away, ship’s services were suspended ahead of the muster drill without any sign of luggage in our stateroom corridor.

Our muster station was located in Animators Palate, which then turned into the survival of the fittest to get out and up the stairs for sail away. The Wonder left the dock during the muster drill, but the Sail-A-Wave deck party was obviously held to allow guests to arrive.

While we missed the actual departure, the timing worked out as it still allowed everyone to assemble on the upper decks to watch as we passed by Stanley Park and under the Lions Gate Bridge.

Turns out, I am good at holding a sign with a really cool DCL Blog cruise logo.

Around 5 o’clock, we headed back to the stateroom to unpack and get ready for dinner starting at 5:45 PM. However, there was still no luggage and no sign of any luggage delivery in our hallway. Over the years, we have been fortunate to have luggage delivered quickly, but normally we have most, if not all luggage before the start of the muster drill. Years ago, I believe in San Juan, our luggage tag was ripped off and was being held behind guest services. With this in mind, I walked around the decks above and below ours to see if they happened to be delivered to the wrong deck, or stateroom. After exhausting the self-service options, I proceeded to inquire at guest services. The suitcases were not in the pile of those missing luggage tags, so the GS Crew Member called down to deck 1 to inquire reporting back to me they were still in the process of getting luggage to the staterooms.

By the time I made it back to our stateroom around 5:20 PM, 2 of the 3 bags were sitting outside our door with the 3rd and most important one (our daughter’s) delivered minutes later. Between the port operations and some other things onboard, it felt like this was the first time the Disney Wonder was sailing from Vancouver and everyone was still trying to figure things out; far from the gold standard of Port Canaveral and a bit of a chaotic start to a vacation.

I am not sure how we managed to pull it off, but we unpacked, changed, and made it to Triton’s in time for the start of dinner service. For me, vacation doesn’t start until we are unpacked.

Since this was a 9-night cruise, we are starting out with the Let the Magic Begin menu featuring regional inspirations. There were some first night woes. We sat at the table for 40-minutes before the first courses were served. Ok, first night, we are a group seated at a gigantic table, and we have a few allergy considerations (although they were self managed).

We spoke with our head server midway through service, and he assured us things will run better from now on. Cool, cool! That is all we can ask. As for the first night, we were one of the last tables remaining with most of the restaurant already reset for late dining when our desserts were served around 7:45PM. If you are avid readers of our trip reports, we like to be out of dinner around 7/7:10pm in order to get to 7:30 PM music trivia, so being last in the dining room is very unusual for us.

We did a little quick run through Mickey’s Mainsail and WhiteCaps to checkout the merchandise offerings. Seeing a lot of guests with bags arriving late to dinner had us a bit worried they might have been cleaned out, but it appeared they have a good supply of the Alaska merchandise this year. We picked up a couple items that we “NEEDED”, but will return another time when the shops are not busy. 

I was thrilled to see a wide selection of Alaskan Brewing Co beers available both in cans and draft including my favorite, the Icy Bay IPA pictured below at Preludes just outside the Walt Disney Theatre.

After a less than stellar embarkation experience, we just wanted some tranquility which only Deck 4 can provide. There is just something magical, I mean wonderful about being out on deck 4, especially in a lounger.

After gaining 3 hours traveling from Orlando to Vancouver, we will gain another hour tonight as we switch to Alaska time.

After a day which felt like we were salmon swimming upstream against the current, we ended the night early to take advantage of the time change to recharge for our upcoming day at sea. Isabelle did spend some of the evening hanging out at Vibe, not sure when she returned because time is a mystery at this point.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Pre-Cruise – ✈️ Travel Day from Orlando, Florida to Vancouver, British Columbia & Pre-Cruise Day in Vancouver
• Day 1 – Vancouver, Canada
• Day 2 – At Sea
• Day 3 – Ketchikan, Alaska
• Day 4 – Glacier Viewing (Stikine Icecap), Alaska
• Day 5 – Juneau, Alaska
• Day 6 – Icy Strait Point, Alaska
• Day 7 – Sitka, Alaska
• Day 8 – At Sea
• Day 9 – Victoria, Canada

We love it if you considered joining us on our next DCL Blog Cruise in May 2025 as we sail from cay to cay. We will be returning to The Bahamas visiting both Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay. Click here to learn more.